An Unfixed Point In Space and Time
by Everion Radnor
Summary: Jack Harkness will be alive and Ianto Jones will be dead and that will make all the difference. Three parts.
1. Part One

"We´ve gotta get you out of here. I can survive anything, but you can't!"

Ianto's breathing is heavy, slowing down. Jack can almost see his heart slowing down. He's dying. He's dying and Jack realizes, with a sense of hopelessness, that he cannot stop it.

"Too late," he said. "I've breathed the air."

Ianto leans in, closer to his warmth and his hands curl around the lapels of his greatcoat. Jack looks at the mop of curly hair. The House is painfully silent, serving to make Ianto's breathing louder.

"There's gotta be something. There's gotta be an antidote!" He knows he is pleading, but this is no time for bravado, not time for heroics, only fear creeping through his body.

Captain Jack Harkness's heart is breaking all over again. It's shattering into miniscule pieces and lodging into his lungs and ribs. Somewhere down the line, he's fallen in love with Ianto Jones, fallen in love with his snark and moody, soulful eyes and inability to do anything but love relentlessly, unconditionally, without the need for reciprocation. And make wonderful beverages.

The alien virus the 456 ambassador released into the air is slowly dissolving his vascular pathways, stopping his mitochondria and breaking down his muscle, turning him into a sack of dead flesh and bone. But he doesn't care. He'll come back. A fixed point in space and time is immovable.

The 456 on the other side of the glass watches, impassive, threatening, needlessly cruel. He wants to kill it, kill it for the demands it made upon Earth and for harming Ianto, but he can't move, not without moving Yan, his Yan, his dying Yan. The virus is secondary to him. All that matters is that he's losing Ianto.

"You said you would fight." The alien sounds disappointed.

Jack wonders whether it has ever lost something it'd loved.

"And I take it back, all right? I take it all back, but not him!"

Glassy eyed, weak, Ianto's grasp slips and he falls. Jack falls with him, his knees locking into place. He couldn't stand again, not that he wanted to. His body is failing him, just like his immortality is. After all, what good is being immortal if you have to watch everyone die a thousand times?

"No," he breathes, hands on his face. No, no, no, no, no. No!"

A tiny part of him cannot believe this is happening.

Ianto watches him, lips slightly parted. The rasp of his breathing is gone, replaced with a quiet inhale, pause, and exhale. He's crying.

"Ianto," and now his voice is going, unable to travel far though his throat. "No. It's all my fault.  
"No," Ianto said, and now the water at the corners of his eyes was spilling over, "It's not."

"Don't speak, save your breath." Jack shushes him, his head shaking frantically. Speaking will hasten Ianto's demise, and he wants to stave it off as long as he can. But Ianto is as stubborn as ever and his eyes are fixed adoringly on him. Jack strokes his cheek. The virus is deadening his nerves. He can't feel the softness of his skin.

"I-I love you, I…"

"Don't," he replies, automatically. His mouth feels like lead. Who is he trying to stop from loving, himself, or Ianto? He can't spare either from the heartbreak now, can he?

"Ianto. Ianto. Ianto, stay with me, Ianto, stay with me, please. _Stay with me, stay with me_, please, please." He knows he is crying because tears make dark drops on Ianto's collar and slide down his throat. He shakes him, winds his fingers into his hair, pulls until Ianto blinks hazily at him, pupils blown wide. He regrets his "don'ts" dearly. Typical of him, hurting Ianto at every possible moment.  
But Ianto, dear loving, sensitive Ianto is able to cobble together words he thinks Jack will understand.

"Hey, it-it was good, yeah?"

He hates himself for cheapening the moment.

"Yeah," he says, because it hurts too much to say anything else.

"Don't forget me."

He huffs. How could Ianto think that? "Never could."

A pause.

"A thousand years time, you won't remember me."

Ianto is so sure of his own death. His eyes are dimming.

"Yes, I will. I promise, I _will_."

Ianto stops breathing. Jack stares at him disbelievingly .

"Ianto. Ianto? Don't go, don't leave me, please." He pleads to the dead man in his arms, but his eyelid remain stubbornly shut. "Please, don't."

"You will die," says the 456. Is that a ripple of _satisfaction_ running through his voice? "And tomorrow, your people will deliver the children."

Harkness could kill every single one of those people with his bare hands. He'd start with the 456 in front of him. Ianto's blood was on their palms, _was on it's palms._

Jack struggles to bend down and gently press his mouth to Ianto's. He then slumps completely to the ground, still clutching onto him.

Jack Harkness will stand up tomorrow, alive and healthy. Ianto Jones will not.

He will mourn when he sees the dead man beside him. His grief will have no bounds. He will flee Earth and the memories it holds for him. But he will live and the man who never called him anything less than _sir _will be dead and that will make all the difference.


	2. Part Two

Ianto doesn't realize he is slipping to the floor until he sees Jack's frantic face. He falls with a muted thud, and Jack follows after, cradling him. He looks stricken.

_Of all the things to be taken down by, it had to be a virus_, he thought.

"-gotta be something! There's gotta be an antidote!" Jack is frantic and he brushes his thumb over the cut on Ianto's cheek. It stings dully.

Ianto has always been one for introspection and this time, so close to his death, with the man he loves crying over him-yes, Jack Harkness is _crying_-he is no different. Even as the virus chews through him, like he's a rag doll, he still can't help but think Jack's face is one of the most beautiful things he has ever seen on Earth. His pheromones are strengthened by the sweat of his skin and all Ianto wants to do is hold him in his arms and drink in his scent. Unfortunately, he is too weak for that.

"No! No, no, no, no, no. No! Ianto. No." - "It's all my fault."

It is Jack's fault, because of Jack's arrogance, his desire to be a hero in Ianto's eyes. He dragged Ianto along and now, because of him, Ianto won't live to see the man another day. He cut his life short.

Ianto doesn't care. He would follow Jack to the end of the Universe. He would trade all of his years to spend his last moments with Jack Harkness. All of his fears are back; they swirl around his brain with his infected blood, they whisper that Jack will forget him, will move on, will never remember what precious few moments Ianto shared with him. Ianto shudders, because the thought is too horrible to think.

He loves him, loves him desperately, enough to take anything for him, enough to say anything to keep him content, to ease his guilt and pain.

So he lies.

"No it's not..."

His throat hurts.

The immortal shushes him, voice tripping over his sobs.

"Don't speak, save your breath." His eyes are full of visceral passion. Ianto loves him, he has to tell him. He can't leave Jack believing that Ianto didn't love him.

"I love you, I..."

"Don't."

Ianto is breaking now. Jack doesn't love him back. Or is he telling him not to speak? He is confused and hurt. His eyes close. All he wants to do is sleep.

But it's all right. He can live with that. As long as he has Jack, it's perfectly fine that Jack doesn't love him.

"Ianto. Ianto. Ianto, stay with me, Ianto, stay with me, please. _Stay_ with me, _stay with me_, please, _please_."

He would, but his body is failing him. Jack's face is blurred and darkness is creeping into his vision. His body feels like a giant sore, all bruised and weak and open.

"Hey, it was...good, yeah?" Ianto won't say he loves him again. He doesn't want Jack to flee.

"Yeah."

"Don't forget me."

He can feel Jack's tears on his neck.

"Never could," he says back. Ianto wants to run his fingers through Jack's hair so badly, but he can't move.

"A thousand years time, you won't remember me." But that is a bluff.

Jack Harkness killed him, and Jack Harkness never forgets who he kills. This provides him with a small measure of comfort.

The other man breathes shakily.

"Yes, I will. I promise, I will."

Ianto doesn't have the will to open his eyes again. He can hear Jack begging him not to leave, but he does.

It hits him, then, that Jack loves him. Because if he didn't, he wouldn't be losing consciousness in his arms.

As the virus destroys the last of his senses, he can only pray he finds Jack on the other side.

His last thought is that he can feel tear tracks on his face.


	3. Part Three

Ianto, love, I kept my promise.

I haven't forgotten you. I have forgotten _nothing _about you. I haven't forgotten the way you felt under me, or your face. Remember the time I tilted my chair so far back, I nearly hit the floor? You caught me. Damn, wasn't your expression priceless? You made me feel like I was seven again, scolding me like that.

Of course you don't remember. You died a millennium ago. Died in my arms. We're such a poetic pair.

When I woke up, I thought I was in a very bad dream. You were so cold, Ianto. You wouldn't move, or speak. I kept waiting for you to open those baby blues and smile at me.

I've been so bad to you. I've treated you like hell. But you just sat and took it, didn't you? Because you loved me. And in the end, I killed you. Not that you would ever admit it. You're safe and whole in my mind. You still breathe and kiss me. You still reply to my questions. Not out loud though. Ah, Ianto, my hands are stained with your blood.

Ianto, you don't ever, ever, ever want to be immortal. The price is terribly high. No matter what you do, you will always watch them die, or you will kill them. I didn't want to see you grow old, even though you'd have looked as handsome as ever. Preserved in my mind, for eternity, ageless. Can you see what you've reduced me to? Soliloquizing on paper.

You told me you loved me. Why did you go? Why didn't you be stubborn and not listen to me? The only place you're immortal is in my heart, Yan. And you had to go and break it by dying. What was it like for you? Was it painful? I hope it wasn't. I never want you to suffer because of me. I'm stupid, selfish, senseless, but I care that much.

There was something special about you. Something I never found in all the other lovers I had. You were so earnest. I never found anyone like you. I know, that's genetically impossible.

I think you broke me, Ianto. Yes, I had people, but that's it. You certainly put me off love. Are you happy, knowing that you put me off love? Imagine that, you having to share me with only a couple of the people in my long, long life. You're adorable when jealous. I was going to marry you, Ianto Jones. I was going to ask you to be my husband. I wanted to wake up every morning for as long as I could at your side.

The 456 are gone. They've been eradicated from this universe. The Doctor tried to stop me, but he couldn't. I had a lot of time on my hands. And who can stop me? They killed you. I begged for them to save you, but they didn't.

It's funny. In a thousand years, I still haven't found someone who makes as good coffee as you do.


End file.
